We need to accept the changing definition of our ‘family values’
What you need to know:
- In the 1980s, the HIV/Aids pandemic and the public education that became necessary to deal with the crisis contributed to the rapid change in family values.
- A family newspaper in Britain is contrasted with tabloid newspapers such as The Sun, Daily Mirror, and the now defunct News of the World.
I think it is just a matter of time before homosexuality is accepted or tolerated in Kenya.
At the very least, the moral outrage against homosexuals is bound to subside sooner rather than later.
But still, when a gay rights movement in Kenya recently sent me a proposal for a regular column in the Daily Nation to champion its members’ rights I knew instinctively that it was dead on arrival.
To begin with, homosexuality is a crime in Kenya and to promote homosexual activities is tantamount to abetting a crime.
It is also against the law to produce, for purposes of distribution, any writings or pictures the law considers indecent unless it is done in the public interest.
Secondly, newspapers do not normally publish material that is against the wishes of the majority of its readers or public morality.
Furthermore, the Code for the Practice of Journalism in Kenya forbids the publication of material that is obscene, vulgar, or not in good taste, again unless it serves the public interest.
Public interest is not defined and, therefore, it is risky to publish such material unless one was fairly certain it would pass the public interest test.
MEDIA AND VALUES
Yet, at the same time, many readers write or call to object to the publication of certain editorial matter that they consider to be unfit for a family newspaper.
What we are really talking about here is family values or common decency — what has traditionally held families together and strengthened our social fabric.
Such values include sexual dos and don’ts but these could vary from community to community.
To complicate the picture, our social values have been in a state of flux since colonisation.
Globalisation and the coming of the internet have expedited the changes.
In the 1980s, the HIV/Aids pandemic and the public education that became necessary to deal with the crisis contributed to the rapid change in family values.
The impact of foreign media systems, including television programming, and the impact of social media, especially among the young and urbanised populations, have made it even more difficult to define what our family values really are.
That probably explains why there is no real agreement as to what constitutes a family newspaper in our situation.
A family newspaper is, in fact, a term we have inherited from Britain.
It is used to describe a newspaper that refrains from publishing titillating material such as sex, gossip, and juicy crime stories calculated to attract mass readership.
CHANGING TIMES
A family newspaper in Britain is contrasted with tabloid newspapers such as The Sun, Daily Mirror, and the now defunct News of the World.
As a society, we do not seem to have a clear-cut idea of what a family newspaper should include or exclude from its pages, although there have been clear instances where the public in general has been outraged by published items.
The most obvious one was the publication by The Star on March 8, 2011, of pictures of a couple copulating publicly on a bench in Muliro Gardens in Kakamega town.
This was a first by a Kenyan newspaper, and the Media Council of Kenya came out strongly to condemn the publication.
“Carrying this story in the newspaper offends common decency and family values that we want to believe in as a society,” the council said in a statement.
“We note that this story upset the general public, with many terming it disgusting, morally misleading and published in bad taste. It obviously affects the work of the media and the public’s perception of the media.”
But the newspaper weathered the storm and has been publishing sex stories by “sexpert” Valentine Njoroge, apparently without any backlash from readers.
In fact, there has been such a loosening of family values and constraints that a family newspaper in the Kenyan context is constantly being redefined and remains a nebulous concept.
Readers who seek to have certain material suppressed because of their perceived notion of family values should also remember that the values are changing.
What was unacceptable 10 years ago may be acceptable today.
Send your complaints to the public editor @[email protected]. Call or SMS 0721 989 264.
